A chess second may prepare opening systems, provide physical fitness regimens or help a player prepare for the psychological battle of a match. He or she can also learn how to think and prepare like a champion, and the results may come quickly.

Hammer credited his recent successes to his work with Carlsen, but told the Chessvibes website that “it’s tricky to make your training efforts shown in tournament play.”

One of Wojtaszek’s best wins in Zurich was against Ivan Popov, a Russian grandmaster. In the top diagram, Wojtaszek took advantage of the poor positions of Popov’s pieces by sacrificing an exchange to break through Popov’s defenses. The game went 19 Ra6 ba6 20 Ra6 Kd7 21 b4 Rb8 22 b5 cb5 23 Bh5 Ke7 24 e4 b4 25 Bg5.

Hammer seems to have learned how to squeeze opponents the way Carlsen does. Against Aleksey Goganov, a Russian grandmaster, in the Rilton Cup, Hammer temporarily sacrificed pawns in order to pin down his opponent’s pieces.